You cannot vote globalization and technology away without hurting yourself even more

[Yavin4]

You want high quality products like iPhones, Samsung Galaxy phones, flat screen high-def TVs, Prius, affordable clothes at Old Navy, computers, etc., etc. If you want goods and services at reasonable prices, then you have to accept globalization, immigration, and technology that make these things possible.

Sorry, but buying only American made products is not practical nor reasonable. Protectionism would only bring higher priced goods, less services, long delays, and a slower economy as consumers spend less which would lead to greater job losses. Be wary of policies that make you feel good, but are not really good for you.

The answer is to develop career skills that make you marketable in a global economy.

[bemildred]

1. Your argument is circular.

The problem is those products are cheap plastic crap (but very profitable!) that will be obsolete the day they are purchased, not high-quality products, and there is no shortage of ways for people to do any of the things they do already.

[sufrommich]

4. People freely make those choices with their wallets

and have been since the 1960s. We bought that "junk" and for decades when we had the choice not to.We could have bought American products,we didn't by choice.

[bemildred]

5. People vote freely too. nt

[sufrommich]

7. Yes they did,we made our own bed.nt

[bemildred]

10. Like you said, first you bought that crap, now you voted against the consequences.

Very familiar to us here too.

[sufrommich]

14. It's a clusterfuck of epic proportions. nt

[SoLeftIAmRight]

2. Air - Water - Food

Air – Water – Food – Shelter – Income – Health – Education – Transportation – Energy – Relations – Entertainment

Get these working well and most other things will come easily.

I have strong utopian desires. My thoughts and hopes are distorted by this inclination. Still, most of my ideas were given to me by people that are smarter, more grounded, and have studied them thoroughly. For me, they seem like no-brainers.

I see that solutions abound and wonder at the slow pace of implementation. I am troubled that new assaults erupt at a pace faster than they are even acknowledged. Continued improvements in the provision and use of the basics must be the mission if we are to have a livable future.

Every person, school, business, organization needs to work actively to ensure that the things that they are engage in enhance or produce as little negative effect as possible on these resources.

[sufrommich]

3. I will be a long and painful period before the developed nations

admit that emerging nations have just as much right to develop as they have had for the past century.

[runaway hero]

8. Of course

But at the cost of the middle class? Question of the day.

[sufrommich]

11. It's at a cost to our middle class,the middle class in developing

nations is growing by leaps and bounds,especially in Asia.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-22956470


We have to figure out a way to grow our middle class in a global economy.

[runaway hero]

15. I agree

But not everyone wants, or even can work at an office or call center. We need to do better.

[sufrommich]

17. The problem is that emerging countries learned their lesson well,

they went from consumer countries to manufacturing countries,basically they flipped the global economy in which we were perfectly OK with as long as we were the manufacturers and the globe was our buyers.

[runaway hero]

18. Of course, and when it got too expensive here

Corporations were more then happy to take their jobs overseas. But now we have a shirking middle class, strife and a heroin epidemic. We need to grow smarter.

[sufrommich]

19. I fear we'll grow dumber before we grow smarter. Panic does

strange things to people,as Brexit has shown us.

[runaway hero]

20. It isn't just xenophobia

People want to be employed. This can't go on. The "Somalia Solution" is not enviable to me.

[runaway hero]

9. Eventually when they outsource all the jobs, and we are paying

people 25 dollars/hour to flip burgers, you will reconsider this.

[lapfog_1]

12. Actually, looking another 10 to 20 years into the future

I see the end of globalization.

Why? Because it costs energy to move raw materials to production sites, and then more energy to move the finished goods to markets. The only reason this makes sense today is that the cost of labor to make those products outweighs the cost of energy to do those moves. Now suppose the cost of labor disappears (or almost disappears). Would it still make sense to spend energy (money) doing unnecessary moves?

Why would the cost of labor be nearly eliminated? Automation. At some point the cost of having a robot or computer do a task is going to be less than the cheapest human. Especially tasks that can be easily automated.

This will end globalization of manufacturing... but brings up the next crisis... namely that capitalism depends on consumers... with a vastly reduced work force, there will be no consumers (or at least not as many, designers, artists, engineers and some sales will still have jobs).

[dembotoz]

13. but you can consume with your eyes wide open

i try to buy us when practical

when i can i do and when i can't i don't

example when my chevy got smushed a couple years back, the payment from the insurance company was not much money.
I tried to by domestic but pretty much the only thing i could find that i could afford was an old kia.

i do not feel guilty about that

I work in tech and i can see the obvious roi on keeping your business up to date.
Not cutting edge.....but admit that perhaps the internet is here to stay and act accordingly.
before you can compete against china you need to compete against the guys down the street.

[swhisper1]

16. trade does not hinge on globalization. The price for high quality stays in the pockets of CEO's, it

does not profit the world, it profits the 1%. The US is very capable of making these things if trade gets too expensive. I am not in favor of our country becoming just a consumer nation. Competition creates jobs, that creates a good economy. Today we have poor paying jobs and less and less decent paying jobs because of free trade is making us lazy . Germany has a stable economy because they make things . Those affordable clothes you speak of last 10 wearings,then turn to rags, tennis shoes are over $100. these are not reasonable prices my friend. I think my disgust with the global economy is justified

[HughBeaumont]

21. Corporate America is already doing such an astounding job failing our children's future . . . .

. . . that I don't think they need extra help from their suppliers in their purchased banks . . . er . . government . . . er, what?

Think about it.

If your kid has a college degree, where's he/she going to go that an overseas kid who can get that same degree can't be imported here to do it for less (or they just offshore the damned job)?

If your kid isn't cut out for college (as many aren't), where are they going to go? There ain't any more Hank Fords rising up outta the woodwork, building them some factories here and paying their workers a fair wage - they have Malaysians and Chinese slaves for that sort of thing now and McDonald's is now the new "Blue Collar Work", only without the living wage.

For all of you "bootstrapers", people with Masters degrees during the Bewsh years (and for sure going to happen if that asshole gets selected) got laid off through no fault of their own. I don't know, should it be their fault for not having an inexhaustible supply of liquid money to go to college continually with? Are we going to tell them they "simply didn't work HARD ENOUGH"?? Who pays for these multiple trips to college? What do they train for? What job do you GO to after PhD qualification . . . SUPER PhD? Do you need a PhD now to do the same job you needed a Bachelors for 15 years ago? What changed in that job?

I take that back . . . maybe they should fail . . . since they'd better get used to a whole lot of it when they get older. Unaffordable college now pays for what seems to be an ever worsening job market to come out to, stagnant to worsening wages in the face of an ever-increasing cost of living, no foreseeable career fields on the horizon to replace the outgoing ones, no veering away from 35-year Reaganomics since corporate America and government are now one in the same . . .

Oh, and did I mention that with automation, the worker is clean out of the picture (unlike industrialization, where labor still needed to run the machines)?

Sing it with me . . . "I believe that children are our future . . . teach them well and let them lead the way" PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT.

[Odin2005]

22. The answer is a guaranteed minimum income because most jobs will be automated away, eventually.

[Recursion]

23. Anything else is re-arranging deck chairs

And the longer we put that off the harder it's going to be.